apache - htaccess works in localhost but doesn't work in EC2 instance

Question

My htaccess file works on localhost but doesn't work when i deploy it to EC2 instance.

I'm using Macbook and in finder i cannot see the htaccess file, i thought that perhaps it didn't get copied to EC2 instance but i don't think this is the problem because when i copy the project i can see the htaccess file in my editor.

Is there something enabling mod rewrite in EC2 linux instance? If there is, i didn't do it or it enables mod rewrite as default?

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

Answer 1

I pieced together some info from various posts so I thought I'd put up an answer.

1. As Paul commented, If you're running Amazon EC2 Linux, you're probably running httpd instead of Apache. The file is therefore in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
2. You have to change the file as root user. (from ssh access) Do this: sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (How to edit httpd.conf file in AMAZON EC2)
3. DocumentRoot "/var/www/html" was listed in two places for me. I had to change the subsequent AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All in those two places.
4. Restart apache. I restarted my whole ec2 instance (i have apache configured to start automatically) although just restarting apache should work. But I see the change is working.

I was trying to make the same changes in a .htaccess file (removing the index.php from urls in a code igniter application). Hope it helps!